12 Tips for Photos that Stand Out on Google Business Profiles
A guide to high performing photos, file names and metadata
OCUS photographs restaurants on every continent except Antarctica. We post images to Google and last year we generated 400 million photo views for our clients.
Photos speak to our instinct, our lizard brain.
We want to see what we will eat, before we eat it, where we will sleep, before we sleep, and where we will go before we set off.
Why Photos for Google? Why not Instagram?
Instagramers are constantly scrolling for new images, whereas for better or worse, Google permanently attaches photos to a location.
These “evergreen” photos show up in searches for your business and food category, now and in the future.
12 tips for restaurants to stand out on Google:
1. Take photos with natural light
Most photos have good lighting for eating but are underlit for online photos. A smartphone flash reflection or a missing bite is even worse. Regardless if you are in Tokyo or Melbourne, use natural light to show your food in its best light.
2. Welcome people to your eating areas
We ran an OpenTable pilot and the best performing photos were in the dining room and bar. As people start to eat out again, you should use photos to build trust to generate more bookings.
3. Use perspective
We compared front-on images vs angled interior photos that provide depth. Angled photos drive the most views (See Tip 8 for an interesting exception)
4. Show the outside
Humans are naturally more comfortable in a known environment. Show the outside of your business to help new customers feel relaxed. Local landmarks, entryways, parking, trees and street lighting all build instinctive trust for the lizard brain.
5. Behind the scenes
Good food hygiene is a must, don’t just show your score on the door. Post photos that peek into your kitchen and prep stations.
6. Showcase your team’s skills
Each restaurant’s success is connected to a team. Showcase them, but remember two caveats. Wrinkles and stains jump out on a photo so don’t be sloppy. Staff turnover can be high so focus on hands rather than faces.
7. Don’t feature table cloths
Formal dining appeals to the Valentine’s and Mother’s Day crowd, but it won’t drive everyday customers. Ditch the table clothes to not look stuffy and formal.
8. A restaurant is judged by its cover
Google’s “Hero” or cover image is almost guaranteed to be your restaurant’s exterior. Google can overrule your cover image choice so make sure to provide a nice exterior photo in good weather and light. Also unlike for interiors, the best performing exterior photos are front-on.
Note the “Hero” image in the top left corner of Cask & Trotter’s profile
9. Google Maps isn’t just for connected urban foodies
You might be surprised but your mother probably uses Maps. It is a tool to help you attract audiences compared with restaurants in better locations. In this case, you can see the great traction L. George’s Coney Island in Michigan gets even compared with the Beloved Natural Cafe in San Francisco’s trendy and tech-friendly Mission District.
10. Slight overexposure is good
Remember your photos will be seen at the size of your thumbnail, not on a giant billboard. Slightly over-exposing your images makes it easier for the human eye to see in such a small format.
11. Include file names and metadata
Google adds dish labels to photos using machine learning. Ensure Google labels your dishes correctly by identifying dishes in your file names. For a bonus add metadata. Dublin Core and IPTC are both well-documented, widely used standards.
See below Google replaces the address with “Hamburger”. Also note it is clearly a bacon cheeseburger, not a hamburger. The risk and impact of misidentifying even simple and frequent items is high so I expect Google to go slow on automating it.
12. Photos for food trucks
It is easy to imagine Google photos only work for trendy restaurants. That isn’t our experience. This food truck photo racked up 67k+ views. Know someone in Davis, the bike capital of the US to confirm if this is a spectacular spot, please let us know!
High-quality food photos push up your business and profile rank. We’ve found cheap and cheerful Mexican, Chinese and Pizza restaurants photos with 1+ million views.
Next steps
Great photos build trust and loyalty. Google’s own data shows photos increase in-store visits by 42% so these 12 tips will reach and engage new diners for your restaurant.
The best food delivery marketplaces provide free photos to drive more customers to restaurants on their platform! If you list on a platform, forward this article to them and ask for an OCUS photoshoot to increase your Google Maps social awareness, attract new customers and increase your revenue.
What about the horrible photos on my Google Business Profile?
Many restaurants, even big brands, have horrible customer photos on their profiles. Unseemly competitors also can add unflattering photos. The good news is users are not as shocked as you are. They judge based on the best and worst content.
You can ask Google to take the photos down, kids also write to Santa.
Honestly, don’t hold your breath. Your best option is to add more authentic photos using the tips above to counterbalance and push down the bad content.
Don’t believe me and still want to try, here is how to request removal of photos from Google Business Profiles. If a photo is not of your location or violates Google Maps Photo Policies, the photo is “reviewed and may possibly be removed” (my emphasis).
Your best/only bet is if the photo violates the law.
Grab a coffee and dig into tools and long-reads
Make your Google business listing awesome
How to add photos to your Google Business Profile
Business-specific photo types Google accepts
Protect your Copyright
Copyright is a big hairy topic that varies widely by country. Google is working to improve how they handle image copyright. To protect your copyright or limit usage, you should add Image Rights Metadata.
More on Metadata
Metapicz is a free tool to see if your existing photos have metadata and EXIF data.
Google supports the IPTC metadata format to manage image copyright information. Wikipedia has a good non-technical overview of Dublin Core Metadata another standard that is widely embraced. Tech folks can dive into the rabbit hole of the DCMI terms documentation.
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Great concise , easy steps to follow for photo improvement. Love the examples.
I'm forwarding this to every restauranteur I know. Great action plan.